Skipper Justin Fleck checked in with this report from the Excel: "We departed yesterday on our 10 Day Open trip. We started offshore today. Things started slow and about mid-day things started popping. We got on a nice Bluefin school. The average size of the Bluefin was about 50 pounds, up to about 65 or 70 pounds. Our 28 anglers have about 120 of them so far and they're still biting. We're having very good action and there are a lot of Bluefin around for October. It's crazy if you think about it. Guys are seeing massive quantities of Yellowfin down below. The Yellowtail fishing has been consistent and then the Wahoo are getting on. It looks like it is going to carry on through into the early winter. The weather is outstanding as well, adding to the whole experience.”

Yellowtail Volume

“Wow, what a day we had today fishing for beautiful grade yellowtail,” wrote skipper Jeff DeBuys from Independence October 10. “Things got off to an early start as the place was alive with fish showing everywhere you looked. The guys with 6X Jr., and 7X Salas jigs absolutely clobbered these 18 to 30-pound fish until dark. The sardine and macks did very well also for the bait guys. The volume of fish we saw at times was impressive to say the least. This all went down under hot sunny skies. We plan on making a move tonight for tomorrow's fishing activity. Thanks for the jigs, Matt, killed em today.”

20 Over 200

“We have had really incredible fishing since we arrived at our destination,” said the report from Intrepid October 10. “For our first two days of fishing, we had 19 fish over 200 pounds! We had 7 over 200 the first day, and yesterday we topped that with an amazing 12 over 200 pounds. This is our 3rd morning and although we are not engaged in the same kind of action as the previous days, we did manage to pick up another over 200. Bruce Coblentz was the lucky angler for the 20th fish over 200. Now this is not including the great action we have had on the other grade, which is still beautiful fish. The other grade is coming in at 80 to 180. At times we have had good action on the smaller guys, and we even had the wahoo come through to pay us a visit yesterday while we were on the anchor.”

Tuna Limits

“Good things are happening on the Royal Polaris,” said the report for October 10. “We had limits of Bluefin this morning (daily limits) and limits of Yellowfin this afternoon (daily limits). The weather was just beautiful, with clear skies, with a slight breeze to keep it cool. We had two different schools of Yellowfin, one was 14 to 22 pounds, while the other one was 20 to 35 pounds. The Bluefin was the same grade as yesterday, 40 to 60 pounds.”

Records Of Note

The quarterly issue of International Angler, the IGFA’s own magazine, just appeared, and it sports some unusual catches. The wels catfish (Silurus glanis) has a one-page species profile on page 18. This giant predator, which at first appears tail-less, lives in Europe and Asia and reaches at weight of 675 pounds. Spain and Italy are two countries where record wels have been caught.

Fishing with Ross Malone in New Zealand, Kathy Malone caught a line class record albacore of 12 pounds, 12 ounces on two-pound line, for a line-class record.

Peter F. Binaski fished with Guillermo Gomez out of Ensenada to bag a 3-pound, six-ounce Mexican barracuda, a species that runs a good deal smaller than the California barracuda, on 16-pound line, also a record.

Two fly rod calico records were set. Christian Anderson fished with Jeff Stock to take a three-pound nine-ounce bass on an eight-pound tippet in San Diego last May, and Lori Batiuk fished with Bill Matthews in Santa Monica Bay in March to get a three-pound, five-ounce kelp bass on a 16-pound tippet.

Gary Bulla, fishing with Valente Lucero at Cerralvo Island, chalked up two fly rod records on yellowtail. He caught a 34-pound, 14-ounce yellow on a 16-pound tippet, and a 32-pound, 11-ounce forktail on a 20-pound tippet.

Calendar, DVD Release

Monday, October 14 is Columbus Day. It’s also the day Bill Roecker will begin selling the new 2014 Sportfishing Calendar, and his new DVD, “Wahoo On The Rocks.” Watch for the appearance of these excellent new products on FishingVideos.com.

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